PROCEEDINGS 

OF THE 

MASSACHUSETTS SENATE 

©n tije ©ccaston of tjje IReception 



PORTRAIT OF GENERAL DAVID COBB, 

President of that Body, lSOl-1805. 



February 23, 1882. 



/ 



With Compliments of 

SAMUEL C COBB. 



.^' 



PROCEEDINGS 



MASSACHUSETTS SENATE 

©n tfje ©ccasion of tjje Eeception 



PORTRAIT OF GENERAL DAVID COBB, 

President of thai Body, 1801-1805. 



February 23, 1882. 



CAMBRIDGE : 
JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

1882. 






8««r«6 tukBowit 






The account which is given in the following 
pages of the Proceedings in the Massachusetts Senate 
on the 23d ultimo, is offered by the undersigned as 
a token of his respect and veneration for the memory 
of the distinguished m,an whose career and public 
services are eloquently portrayed in the addresses made 
on that occasion. 




Boston, March, 



Thursday, Feb. 23, 1882, was assigned for the public exer- 
cises, connected with the reception by the Senate of the portrait 
of Gen. David Cobb, the gift of his grandson Hon. Samuel C. 
Cobb. The occasion was one of remarkable interest, and was 
graced by the attendance of a distinguished company of ladies 
and gentlemen. There were present among others Hon. 
Robert C. Winthrop, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Hon. Samuel 
A. Green, Mayor of Boston, Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, D.D., 
Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, Dr. Charles D. Homans, Hon. Samuel 
L. Crocker, Hon. E. H. Bennett, Hon. EUis Ames, Hon. 
Uriel Crocker, Curtis Guild, Esq., Justin Winsor, Esq., Abbott 
Lawrence, Esq. The exercises formed a fitting commemora- 
tion both of the subject of the portrait and of the birthday 
of Washington ,1 whose friendship and companionship in arms 
he shared. 

1 February 22 was a holiday, on which the Senate was not in session. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



The Senate being called to order at two o'clock, prayer was 
offered by the Chaplain, Rev. Edmund Dowse, as follows : — 

ALMIGHTY GOD, thou hast ordained that those 
who pass away from the earth, and are no longer 
personally present, may exert a salutary influence in 
forming the character and life of those who come after 
them. We feel that they are speaking to us in silent 
but powerful language, — by their good works while 
living, by their historical records, and by their life-like 
forms, that look down upon us from the walls of our 
private dwellings and public halls. We thank thee for 
these works of art, and we pray that they may not only 
prove sources of rich pleasure, but incentives to fidelity 
in duty, and to the practice of all that was pure, noble, 
and praiseworthy in the character and lives of those 
whom they represent. And we pray thee to direct and 
prosper this Senate in the duties and privileges of this 
day, and thine shall be the praise forever. 

Amen. 



6 , 

On motion of Hon. Andrew C. Stone, Senator from Essex, 
the reading of the Journal was dispensed with. 

The President op the Senate read the following commu- 
nication : — 

Boston, 15th February, 1882. 
The Hon. Robert R. Bishop, President of the Senate : — 

Dear Sir, — Understanding from you that there is a desire 
to procure for the Senate Chamber portraits of past presidents 
of that body, I have taken the liberty of sending to the State 
House, directed to your care, a portrait of General David Cobb, 
which I respectfully ask may be added to the gallery belonging 
to the Commonwealth. 

Tlie original portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart in 
1809 or 1810, and the copy which I send you is by Edgar 
Parker of this city. It gives me, as the only direct male descend- 
ant of General Cobb, of the name, now living, much pleasure 
to present his portrait to the State, and have it placed in a posi- 
tion where it will perpetuate the memory of this distinguished 
son of Massachusetts. 

The name of David Cobb occupies a high place on the 
roll of honor of our State, and his services will always be held 
in grateful remembrance. The story of his eventful life is 
one of interest and importance, covering, as it does, the 
most momentous period in the history of this government 
immediately following the Declaration of Independence. He 
witnessed the events which preceded the revolutionary strug- 
gle, liaving been born in the middle of the last century, and, 
after a service of seven" years as an officer of the Continental 
Army, he saw the political independence of this nation firmly 
established. In 1784 he returned to his native State, where 
he became prominent in public affairs, and filled for more than 
thirty years positions of honor and trust with marked ability 
and fidelity. 

May his portrait speak to us, and to coming generations, 
of the noble virtues and patriotic ardor which inspired our 



fathers to carry forward to a successful termination the great 
struggle which made us a free and independent people. 
I am, Mr. President, your obedient servant, 

Samuel C, Cobb. 

The President then addressed the Senate as follows : — 

In presenting this letter from a distinguished citizen 
of Massachusetts, and the valuable gift which accom- 
panies it, the Senate would hardly pardon me, I am 
sure, if I did not give some expression to its sense, 
both of the fitness and grace of the act, and also of the 
grand character of the man whose portrait, by the act, 
is to speak to us from these walls. That character is 
interwoven in our history, and is a part of the texture 
and fibre of our institutions. By him, and such as he, 
the institutions and structure of the Commonwealth and 
of the country were moulded and fashioned at the criti- 
cal period of the formation of the state and the nation 
as independent governments. He was no inconspicuous 
actor in that work. Trained as a young man amid the 
events which led up to the Revolution, when that event 
occurred he abandoned like Warren the practice of a 
physician, which he was just beginning, and threw him- 
self with ardor and inspiration into the struggle ; and, 
from that time to nearly the close of a long life, he bore 
a conspicuous part in some form of the public service. 
Appointed by Washington a member of his staff, and 
continuing a member of his military family during the 
war ; appointed by Hancock at its close to be a Judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas, and elected almost 
simultaneously by the Legislature as Major-General of 
the Massachusetts Militia ; afterwards, a member of the 



8 

House of Representatives of the State for four years, 
and its Speaker ; a member of Congress ; member of the 
State Senate, and its President for four years ; and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, — these offices attest the trust reposed 
in him by his Commander-in-chief and by his fellow- 
citizens. 

The grateful duty of speaking in detail of the events 
of his life properly falls to, and will be fitly performed 
by, another, the Senator who represents the district which 
was the home of General Cobb for the most of his life, 
the principal town of which sent him, as a colleague of 
Robert Treat Paine, as a representative to the first Gen- 
eral Court ever held in Massachusetts independently of 
royal authority, and in which, twice in the same year, he 
subdued a mob gathered to stop the holding of the courts 
of justice, and uttered the memorable declaration, so 
clearly displaying his character, " For this day I will 
sit as a judge or die as a general." But the magnifi- 
cent lesson of his life, the enthusiasm of his spirit, and 
his work in our institutions, appeal to us all. A grand 
old hero, — type for all years and generations, of honor, 
of patriotism, and of chivalry ! 

As by this act, alike of filial and of patriotic duty, 
performed by his grandson, inheriting and in the exercise 
of the same spirit, this portrait takes its place in the 
Senate gallery, what a grand company it enters ; what a 
company of kindred spirits of the earlier and the later 
time ! Winthrop is here, and has been here for genera- 
tions, to speak from these walls. It is the same picture, 
it is believed, which hung in the mansion-house of Gov- 
ernor Winthrop on Milk Street, and of which the story 
is related that, after his death, an old Indian Sagamore, 



visiting the room where it hung, ran out in great excite- 
ment, crying, " He is alive, he is alive, he is alive !" It is 
the same portrait, no doubt, which John Adams says, 
with the portraits of Endicott and Bradstreet, also here, 
and with that of Belcher, not here, hung in obscure corn- 
ers of the old Council Chamber at the time when Sam 
Adams appeared before Governor Hutchinson and de- 
manded the withdrawal of the troops from Boston. Of 
the early history of the portrait of Endicott little is 
known beyond this reference. Here, also, is Leverett, 
appearing, not in the military dress of his younger life, 
but with shaven face, his beard as is said having been 
laid aside at the court of the Protector, and with the 
white flowing locks of old age. Here, also, is the glow- 
ing face of Bradstreet, and the portrait of Bernet. Here 
are the majestic features of Governor Sumner, painted 
in 1792, the subject clad in the robes of a Justice of the 
Supreme Judicial Court of this State, which office he 
then held, the portrait presented to the Commonwealth 
by his son, General Sumner, and received in 1862. Here, 
also, are the portraits of Governor Eustis, presented to 
the Senate by " A Republican Institution " in 1874, and 
of Robert Rantoul, Jr., placed in the Senate Chamber in 
1859. Here, also, are the trophies sent by Stark from 
Bennington, and, more precious even than they, the king's 
arm, captured by Captain John Parker on the morning 
of the 19th of April, 1775, — the first firearm taken in 
the War of the Revolution, — and the musket carried by 
Captain Parker himself on that day. You do not need 
to be reminded whose words they are which I repeat : 
" Dear shades of all our fathers, whose hearts were fired 
by an ardor which no taunts, no threats, no powers 



10 

could ever discourage or cause to falter, be present 
now, be present always ; in every hour of your country's 
danger, in every moment when hearts grow faint or 
knees grow weak. Be thou immortal hanging on the 
Senate walls ! . . . And, oh, if in any degenerate hour 
Massachusetts should falter or quail, may some weird 
hand beat the old drum which hangs beneath the roof- 
tree of the Senate, give aim to the arm which spoke 
for liberty on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, 
and may it march before the conquering hosts of re- 
enkindled patriotism and re-invigorated devotion ! " 
Whose words were they or could they be but those of 
John A. Andrew, and on what occasion of public appre- 
hension could they have been spoken but in January, 
1861, three months before the firing on Fort Sumter, 
when the fate and the future of his country were trem- 
bling in suspense ! 

The full account given by John Adams of the portraits 
in the Council Chamber, from which I have quoted, is as 
follows: "Two portraits, at more than full length, of 
King Charles the Second, and of King James the Sec- 
ond, in splendid golden frames, were hung up on the most 
conspicuous sides of the apartment. If my young eyes 
or old memory have not deceived me, these were as fine 
pictures as I ever saw ; the colors of the royal ermines, 
and long, flowing robes, were the most glowing, the fig- 
ures the most noble and graceful, the features the most 
distinct and characteristic, far superior to those of the 
King and Queen of France, in the Senate Chamber of 
Congress, — these were worthy of the pencils of Rubens 
and Vandyke. There was no painter in England capa- 
ble of them at the time. They had been sent over, with- 



11 

out frames, in Governor Pownall's time, but he was no 
admirer of Charles or James. The pictures were stowed 
away in a garret among rubbish till Governor Bernard 
came, who had them cleaned, superbly framed, and 
placed in council for the admiration and imitation of all 
men, — no doubt with the advice and concurrence of 
Hutchinson and all his nebula of stars and satellites." 
To these, he says, " might be added, and should be 
added, little miserable likenesses of Governor Winthrop, 
Governor Bradstreet, Governor Endicott, and Governor 
Belcher, hung up in obscure corners of the room." ^ 

We have no desire, certainly, for the restoration of 
the splendors of the provincial Council Chamber, nor any 
regrets at the disappearance of the portraits of the kings. 
The stones which these builders rejected, the worthies 
of the colonial period, have indeed become the chief cor- 
ner-stones of our temple, and are exalted to our highest 
places of honor. To these we have added the heroes 
and great men of the Revolution, and of later times. 
Welcome to this congenial company a noble and conge- 
nial spirit ! 

I have to thank heartily on behalf of the Senate the 
distinguished gentlemen who have honored the occasion 
of the presentation of this portrait with their presence. 
Some of them, I am sure, are gentlemen who knew the 
subject of the portrait. The distinguished and honored 
descendant and representative of the first Governor of 
Massachusetts ; the oldest Hving President of the Senate, 
holding that office in 1842 and 1844; the distinguished 
and venerable President of the Senate in 1850 ; the phy- 
sician, a remarkable coincidence, who attended General 

1 John Adams's Works, vol. 10, pp. 245, 249. 
2 



12 

Cobb in his last sickness, as I am just informed ; the 
presence of these and many others is especially grati- 
fying at such a commemoration. 

I await such action as the Senate may deem proper. 

Hon. George G. Crocker, Senator from Suffolk, then offered 
the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That we accept from the Hon. Samuel C. Cobb the por- 
trait of David Cobb, President of this body from the year 1801 to the 
year 1805, to be hung in honorable position within this Senate Cham- 
ber; with our thanks for the gift, we also desire to express to the gen- 
erous grandson our strong appreciation and approval of the dutiful and 
praiseworthy motives which have led him thus to show the esteem and 
veneration in which he justly holds the memory of his illustrious grand- 
sire. Great as are the merits and intrinsic value of the painting, we 
feel that they dwindle into insignificance when compared with the 
wealth of inspiration and impulse which we and our successors may 
gather from the study of the noble life which the portrait commemo- 
rates. David Cobb, physician, warrior, judge, and statesman, we wel- 
come your presence here, that those who enter this hall may be moved 
to emulate the lofty and patriotic purpose which ruled your life. 

Hon. William Reed, Jr., Senator from Bristol, said: — 

The brave soldier, devoted patriot, wise physician, and 
discreet jurist, whose likeness the painter's hand has laid 
on yonder canvas, was, as you have remarked, Mr. Pres- 
ident, for many years the most distinguished citizen of 
that district in which I now live, where he was born, 
and where his ashes lie. The shaven face, quaintly cut 
coat, and lace ruffles, tell the story of the gliding days 
between that time and this better than I can number 
them, and carry us back to that period in the political 
life of our Commonwealth, when, just emerging from the 
struggle with the mother country, the new nation of the 



; 13 

west had girt up its loins to perpetuate its individual 
existence, and fortify that liberty which had been won 
by such a generous expenditure of blood and treasure, — 
nay, to a period far anterior to this, for the span of 
his years was fourscore and two. It brought him up 
within the live period of, perhaps, one third of the mem- 
bers of this present Senate, two of whom, at least, had 
almost reached man's estate when he passed away, and 
one of whom — the honorable Senator from the Cape 
district at my right — remembers him as he was in the 
flesh. It bore him back, also, to that distant colonial 
time, which to us at this later day seems almost as nebu- 
lous as the Homeric period. 

General David Cobb was born in Attleborough, Bris- 
tol County, on the Idth of September, 1748. King 
William's war, Queen Anne's war. King George's war, 
were over, but the lilies of France and the red cross of 
St. George had not been furled and laid away in inglori- 
ous peace, the sport of moth and rust, but fluttered still 
in threatening rivalry from Maine to the Gulf. The 
brief peace which preceded the final tournament was 
only a troubled calm in which the combatants lay upon 
their arms for a breathing spell, and listened with alert 
ears for the bugle blast and war whoop. Washington 
was then a young surveyor in the Virginian wilderness ; 
Franklin, in the prime of life, had just begun to investi- 
gate the pranks of the forked lightning in the Philadel- 
phia skies ; and all the great leaders of public opinion 
at home, and ragged continentals on the bloody fields of 
the yet unborn Revolution, were in the first flush of 
manhood, and gaining, in these stirring times of strife 
between two giant European powers for the boundless 



14 

forests and broad savannas of the new world, that ex- 
perience which was to steel their hearts and nerve their 
arms for the still more bitter struggle scarcely a genera- 
tion later. Even Braddock had not yet crossed the sea 
to find his fate in the Pennsylvania wilderness. Born 
when the air was full of martial sounds, and hearing 
daily of the tented field, the lonely watch, the bivouac, 
and the camp fire, it was perfectly natural that in later 
days the country boy should turn away from the busy 
avocations of peace to follow the drum. He was seven 
years old when Braddock's fated campaign sent a thrill 
of horror slowly creeping through the colonies. He 
was eleven when Wolfe and Montcalm lay on the field 
of battle before Quebec ; he was fifteen when France 
assented to that peace which stripped her of all her 
American possessions save a few beggarly fishing sta- 
tions near Newfoundland, and left only scattered Cana- 
dian voyageurs to sing in their liquid tongue of the long 
years of chivalric enterprise and daring wasted in thread- 
ing the giant wildernesses and skimming the great lakes 
for the benefit of a more fortunate antagonistic race. 

Scholarly in all his instincts, the lad's thoughts natu- 
rally tended to the University at Cambridge, even then 
beginning upon the second century of its existence, and, 
after a few years spent in study in the town of Braintree, 
in 1762 he was matriculated at Harvard, and in 1766 
emerged from academic restraints and began the study 
of medicine in Boston. He was then eighteen years old 
and full of that spirit which, even at that time, had made 
Boston the hot-bed of resistance to British aggression, 
and a seething political caldron. Indeed, the spirit of 
resistance was ingrained into New England nature by 



15 

the character of the transatlantic experiment, and the 
climatic surroundings. It is the spirit of resistance 
which makes men men, and to its proper direction and 
cultivation all national and personal success is due. 
Not that stolid reliance on fate which filled the trenches 
of Plevna with Moslem slain, for stolidly fighting for a 
cause about which one knows nothing and dying simply 
because it is God's will, is only an animal resistance which 
beasts show to better advantage than mankind. Such 
a resistance is too narrow in its scope and gross in its 
results. The true spirit of resistance is that which com- 
pels man to rise superior to his surroundings, to conquer 
victory out of defeat, to combat hostile nature as well as 
human adversaries, and to throw up and maintain per- 
petual fortifications against the insidious attrition of nat- 
ural and physical decay. It is a resistance which can be 
as unyielding as bands of steel and as pliable as a silken 
zone. It was transported across the ocean in the pilgrim 
ship, and found a kindly refuge on jN^ew England soil. 
It tugged and toiled and sweat and froze until the vil- 
lage had succeeded the wigwam, the broad highway the 
Indian trail, fair cities and towns decked these hills and 
vales, and sails spread themselves as gallantly to the new- 
world winds as to the old. The church and the school- 
house softened the rough edges, but took out none of its 
God-given temper, which was always as tried and true 
as the Damascus blade in its silken sheath. It sounded 
the fife and drum of '75, and ftiltered not when a victor 
held the blood-stained crest on Bunker Hill. It joyfully 
went back to the plundered home and wasted farm when 
British grenadier and Hessian dragoon had sailed away 
with muffled drums and drooping plumes. It founded 



16 

an empire of which we all, to-day, can thank God we 
are constituent parts, — not merely an empire of wealth 
and numerical strength, but an empire of thought, of 
liberty, of education, with a glorious past behind it, and 
the positive promise of a still more glorious future. 

It was this God-sent and Heaven-directed attribute of 
resistance, fed by the rough winds of our rugged coast, 
nourished by the breath of our pines, which stirred this 
young physician's pulse and nerved his heart to divide 
his time between the couches of his patients and the 
public business. For as early as 1774 we find he was 
Secretary of the Bristol County Convention, called then to 
take measures concerning the public safety, and to pro- 
vide for the impending struggle ; and in the autumn of 
the same year the town of Taunton, already appreciating 
his wisdom and sagacity, sent him, as you have stated, 
to the General Court as the colleague of Robert Treat 
Paine, of holy memory, where, no doubt, in those days 
just prior to the sacrifices of Lexington and Bunker Hill, 
his voice was often heard urging others to follow the 
course that he soon after pursued; for, in 1777, as Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Sixteenth Massachusetts Regi- 
ment, known as the Boston Regiment, and commanded 
by Colonel Henry Jackson, he too accepted the grim 
chances of war. The Sixteenth soon found active ser- 
vice in the Jerseys. It was in the thickest of the fray 
at the terrible battle of Monmouth ; and later at our 
nearer battle at Quaker Hill, Rhode Island, where it 
led the forlorn-hope in the charge against the Hessian 
cavalry, which had been such a scourge upon the people. 
His bravery and judgment soon attracted the attention 
of the Commander-in-Chief; and, in 1781, we find he 



17 

was transferred from the Sixteenth Regiment to the staff 
of Washington, where of five he was the second in point 
of rank. Of the pregnant years that followed to the 
close of the war, time will not allow me to speak ; suifice 
it to say that the joys and successes, the sorrows and dis- 
appointments of his illustrious commander were all alike 
his. With him he witnessed the closing scenes of the 
war, the surrender of Cornwallis, and, at that time, so 
great was the attachment of Washington to him, that he 
retired with him, after the close of hostilities, to Mount 
Vernon, where he passed a number of months as a mem- 
ber of the great commander's family, and one of his most 
intimate friends. 

In 1784 General Cobb returned to Massachusetts, 
intending then to begin his labors where he had left off 
prior to taking up arms. He proposed to renew the 
practice of medicine in the town of Taunton. But the 
public service needed him then more than the sick 
couches of his patients, and he was at once commissioned 
a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, by the Governor 
of Massachusetts, and took his seat. upon the bench. At 
the same time, or shortly after, he was made Major-Gen- 
eral of the Fifth Division of Massachusetts Militia. It 
was in 1786 that the discontents which were left as a leg- 
acy from the Revolution, took that form which has come 
down to us in history as the Shays' Rebellion, and in 
Bristol County, as elsewhere, the courts were the spe- 
cial objects of attack. An armed mob, gathered from 
all portions of the county, led by one Colonel Valentine, 
who had seen service in the Revolution, marched upon 
the town of Taunton, one day when the court was in 
session. The military was called out, and the Judge 



18 

and Major-General took command. To the demands of 
the rioters that the court should adjourn and the papers 
be given up, he made that memorable reply, sir, which 
you have quoted, " I will hold this court if I hold it in 
blood; I will sit as a judge or I will die as a general." 
Convinced that there was stuff before them too deter- 
mined to be trifled with, the mob slunk away. They 
failed to raise their courage to the sticking-point until 
October of the same year, when again, armed and un- 
armed, a howling, tumultuous, disorderly band, they took 
their way to Taunton, where the court was in session, 
and reiterated the demands that they had made before. 
They desired that the court should be dissolved ; they 
wanted the papers ; they wished to put an end to the 
farce which was called justice. The Major-General 
(Judge Cobb) ordered a field-piece — which is now in 
a good state of preservation and the gift of a colored 
Revolutionary soldier to the town of Taunton — to be 
placed in position in front of the court-house. He had 
it loaded with canister shot to the very muzzle, and 
placed a cannoneer by its side with a lighted match. 
To the demand of the mob that the court should be 
dissolved, and that they should have the papers, he re- 
plied, " If you want these papers you must come and 
take them, but I will fire on the first man that crosses 
the line." This, again, was sufficient; the mob had had 
enough of General Cobb ; Colonel Valentine withdrew 
his men, and armed resistance to judicial authority was 
heard of no more in Bristol County. Perhaps if there 
had been a soldier-judge on the bench in some other 
counties of the State at that time, a more honorable story 
could be told of them in those trying times. 



19 

In 1789 General Cobb was sent again to the State 
House in Boston. Recognizing his accompUshments, 
his associates in the Legislature chose him Speaker, and 
for four years he exercised the responsible duties of 
that office to the complete satisfaction of his associates 
and the State. In 1793 he was elected a representative 
from Massachusetts to the Third Congress. He re- 
mained in Congress two years, and in 1795 returned 
to Massachusetts. He was not allowed to rest nor 
waste his time in what the people considered in those 
days a profession unworthy of him. He was at once 
appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas of the District of Maine, which was then a 
part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He re- 
mained there till 1801, when he was sent to the Massa- 
chusetts Senate to represent what was known as the 
Eastern District of Maine. His residence, I think, was 
in the town of Goldsborough. He was at once chosen 
President of the body, and for four years he presided 
over its destinies. Then he retired till the year 1808, 
when he was a member of the Executive Council ; in 
1809 he was the Lieutenant-Governor of the Common- 
wealth ; in 1812, when the cloud of war again darkened 
the country, he was made Major-General of the Tenth 
Military Division, with headquarters on the coast of 
Maine ; in 1813 he was one of the Committee of Safety 
of those days. In 1820 General Cobb left Maine, and 
returned to his old home in Taunton, where he passed 
the remaining years of his life. Dying in 1830 in this 
city, his remains were conveyed to Taunton, and were 
there interred. 

From one who remembers him well, I learn that he 



20 

was of large stature, full, florid face, and commanding 
presence. When engaged in his official duties as a 
jurist, he wore the cocked hat of the revolutionary 
period, breeches with band and buckles, white top-boots, 
and marched into the court-room with the air of a gen- 
eral about to review his division on dress parade. Per- 
fectly in keeping with his manner, his court was man- 
aged with military precision, and at the sharp word 
of command from the bench there was immediate obe- 
dience on the part of bar and officials. Straightforward 
himself, he despised all shams ; and it is characteristic of 
the man that he once said to a lawyer whose actions he 
thought were open to suspicion, " Sir, a dishonest law- 
yer is worse than the devil, for he violates personal 
confidence and a sacred trust ! " Courteous in manner, 
stately and dignified, possessed of a fund of anecdote of 
the court, the camp, and the legislature, he was a most 
genial companion, and one whom all who knew him, 
and their names certainly were legion, were proud to 
honor. Besides the honors which fell to him in course 
from his own Alma Mater, he was made an honorary 
Master of Arts by Brown University ; he had the same 
degree from the College of New Jersey, he was a mem- 
ber of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Ameri- 
can Society of Arts and Sciences, and Vice-President of 
the Society of the Cincinnati. 

It is a pleasant duty, Mr. President, to welcome to 
these walls the portrait of one whose active years were 
so occupied with the public business that one fairly 
starts with wonder when he reflects how varied were his 
accomplishments, how trying the situations in which he 
was called upon to act, and how honorably and worthily 



21 

he wrought out his life-work. And he was blessed in 
this, that his life was spared to see the fruition of the 
most ardent hopes of his youth. He lived to see the 
thirteen discordant Colonies pass through the crucible of 
the Revolution and emerge as the nucleus of a repub- 
lic fairer and brighter than the wildest dream of any 
colonial seer. He lived to see the frontier pushed fur- 
ther and further towards the setting sun, and new Com- 
monwealths arise from the desolation of the wilderness, 
clad in the full apparel of civihzation, until the thirteen 
had been swelled to twenty-seven, and the four million 
people of 1790 had become the fourteen million of 1830. 
He lived to see the white sails of commerce thicken in 
every harbor ; he lived to hear the clatter of machinery 
and the clank of the anvil drown the footsteps of the 
disappearing savage ; he lived to welcome the first ripple 
of that great flood-tide of immigration from the old 
world, and forecast the possibilities of the pregnant 
future. He died full of years and full of labors ; and 
the Commonwealth honors him, but honors itself more 
this day that it places his picture on these walls among 
the representative men of historic epochs. 

But, Mr. President, in contemplating these features, 
which we hope future generations will also honor and 
reverence, let us not forget that the stars of the historic 
firmament which we are permitted -to see and study are 
but few in number in comparison with the vast multi- 
tude who have been buried in the haze of oblivion, yet to 
whom, too, we owe a boundless debt of honor and of grat- 
itude. Perhaps if these silent lips could speak, they 
would say to us, " We accept this honor, not merely for 
ourselves, but for the innumerable multitude, the silent 



22 

and forgotten dead on the field of battle, whose record is 
locked up in the echoless chambers of oblivion." It is 
ever true that the nobler impulses of the mind, — love 
of liberty, resistance to oppression, devotion to country, — 
rising superior to mere fear of bodily harm, has turned 
the tenderest into soldiers, with muscles of iron and 
hearts of granite, and rallied into a resistless wave a 
martial array, which neither biting frosts, nor tropic 
suns, nor malarious death-damps, nor all of the agonies 
of shot or shell could baffle, till victory or death was 
the glorious culmination. Heroes have begotten heroes 
since the earth was young, and at the roll-call of the his- 
torian the ranks of the heroic dead start forth in bris- 
tling columns, with stone axe and club, with bronze 
arrow and spear, with blade of steel and linked cuirass, 
with homespun coat and clumsy gun, with crooked 
scimitar and poisoned dart, with broadsword and bayonet, 
or with no weapon save that undaunted breast, which no 
torture of the trembling flesh could terrify until victory 
or death was the glorious culmination. All races, all 
colors, all creeds, are there in that grim array, broad 
and well-defined at first, as it winds through the nearer 
centuries, but shadowy and indistinct as it leads back 
through those distant years which brought forth their 
living and buried their dead before the pen arose, like 
another star in the east, to light the course of the world. 
So it will be unto the end of time. The resistant spirit, 
born with the first hero, died not when his mortal 
body was laid away. It lives on, eternal and unchange- 
able. The lapse of years aff'ects not its powers nor dims 
its brightness. Like the cloudy pillar by day and the 
crimson glow by night, it lights up the course of historic 



23 

triumphs, no matter to what epoch the scrutinizing glass 
of the student of history is turned. The breasts which 
swelled at Marathon a living wall against myriad Persian 
spears, throbbed with new life at Lexington ; the heroes 
of Thermopylae renewed their vows at Concord Bridge ; 
the ten thousand of Attic story again dragged their 
weary march from Lookout to the sea ; the bleeding 
ranks of Waterloo, mangled by shot and torn by shell, 
sprinkled Wagner's thirsty sands with gore, and clove 
through the smoke and flame of hell to Petersburg's 
death-girdled breach. No narrow grave can contain the 
heroic spirit. Borne to the earth, it drinks in new 
strength from the great mother. Whenever the sword 
of freedom waves, the might of ages nerves the arm that 
wields it ; and whenever a paean of victory arises, in honor 
of a glorious success deserved as well as won, myriads of 
voices from myriads of graves join in the grateful song. 
We only read the future by the past, and, by the lessons 
we have learned, we know that, if on the morrow the 
long roll should sound and the alarm-bell clang, it 
would not be necessary for us to speed away o'er 
troubled seas to seek the great Achilles, whom we knew, 
but we should find him full armored, with weapons 
bright, in the heart of every liberty-loving citizen. 

Hon. William H. Haile, Senator from Hampden, said : — 

General David Cobb was, indeed, a gentleman of the 
old school. He was a man who always performed his 
duty in whatever sphere of action he was called to take 
a part. He was one of that class of men who builded bet- 
ter than they knew, — men whose motives were so pure, 
whose actions were so just, as to command the respect 



24 

and confidence of all with whom they were brought in 
contact. It was owing to such men that this republic 
was able to free itself from the power of Great Britain, 
and to begin that wonderful career of progress and 
growth which has never yet been equalled in the 
annals of history. And although General Cobb lived 
to see that country for which he perilled his life in- 
crease much in population and resources, yet neither he 
nor his compeers could have believed that this land 
would attain its present proud position among the na- 
tions of the earth, and that the possibilities lying before 
it would be so vast and so glorious. The various offices, 
both civil and military, which General Cobb held during 
his life, show the esteem and confidence in which he 
was held by his fellow-citizens. As has been said, dur- 
ing the War of the Revolution he was one of the aides of 
General Washington, and, better still, he was Washing- 
ton's friend. In these days of partisan strife and per- 
sonal ambitions, how the pure and noble character of 
Washington stands out in contrast ; and to have been 
his personal, trusted friend, that were indeed an honor 
greatly to be prized. The quelling of the mob by Gen- 
eral Cobb in Taunton in 1786 brings to our minds the 
fact that at that time, in the western part of this Com- 
monwealth, in the city which I have the honor to repre- 
sent in this Senate to-day, what was known as the Shays' 
Rebellion, of which this Taunton mob was but a part, 
received its overthrow. The causes which led to this 
rebellion were various. The War of the Revolution had 
just been brought to a close ; trade was stagnant ; land 
was almost valueless ; poverty, ruin, starvation stared 
many of the people in the face. The National Constitu- 



25 

tion had not then become the law of the land, and there 
was at least a minority who did not believe in the work- 
ings of our State Constitution. What wonder, then, that 
men in their desperation, when they saw their homes 
taken from them on executions in favor of their credit- 
ors, and their families turned out of doors, should be 
tilled with discontent, and led to rise in rebellion ? Sup- 
pose these same causes should occur to-day, would not 
there be equal danger of turmoil and bloodshed ? But in 
this case, when the line was sharply drawn between law 
and order on the one side and confusion and perhaps anar- 
chy on the other, then the self-sacrificing spirit which 
animated the heroes of the Revolution pervaded the peo- 
ple at this critical period, and the attack on the National 
Arsenal at Springfield ended in the repulse of the rebels, 
and the downfall of the rebellion. All honor, then, to 
General Lincoln and General Shepard, brother offi- 
cers of General Cobb in the War of the Revolution, for 
the promptness and the good judgment that they dis- 
played in subduing the last rebellion in this Com- 
monwealth. 

That this portrait should adorn the walls of this Sen- 
ate Chamber seems very fitting, because, as has been 
said, General Cobb was one of the illustrious Presidents 
of this Senate. He presided over it, as we are told, 
fourscore years ago, with unrivalled grace. And in 
looking upon the face on that canvas, we can but confess 
that the Senate, in electing him its presiding officer, did 
confer great honor upon itself. For what he was and 
for what he did, his likeness and his memory should 
be perpetuated, not only within these walls, but through- 
out this Commonwealth. He was a wise and skilful 



26 

physician, a daring soldier, one born to command, an 
upright and just magistrate, a patriot and a statesman, 
a man who perilled his life and gave his all in the ser- 
vice of his country in the hour of its greatest need. 
Surely a man possessed of these attributes is entitled to 
the grateful remembrance of the people. Representing 
this State, in what has sometimes been called the cele- 
brated Third Congress, he became associated with such 
men as Madison, Ames, and others of like repute, — 
men, by whose good judgment, great intellect, and un- 
erring sagacity, the progress and the growth of the new 
republic seemed to be assured. It is not strange that 
the name of General Cobb should now be unfamiliar to 
many. His death occurred fifty years ago, and it is but 
the truth to say that many of his contemporaries, men 
who won great distinction and who did much in the 
public and private walks of life, are scarcely remembered 
to-day. We do well to study the lives of these men. 

Mr. President, as we accept this portrait and as we 
heartily thank the generous donor for his most suitable 
gift, may we also express the hope that hereafter, when 
members of future Senates and the people come here and 
look upon the portrait of General David Cobb, they may 
be led to study his character, and be inspired to emulate 
his virtues. 

Hon. Chester C. Corbin, Senator from Worcester, said : — 

After the most appropriate resolutions, and the very 
eloquent remarks of those who have preceded me, it 
not only is unnecessary, but would be in the poorest of 
taste for me to undertake to add aught to what has been 
already said in praise of the man whom we this day 



27 

honor. Yet, there is one thought in connection with 
this occasion which possibly I may be pardoned for tres- 
passing upon your time if I present. In olden time 
great stress was laid upon good blood, and the line of 
family descent was accounted of the most value in de- 
termining individual worth. I have no desire to dispar- 
age this idea, yet I am constrained to say that in these 
later times good deeds, noble actions that spring from 
right motives, count for more than do the accidents of 
birth and blood. The young men of to-day need to be im- 
pressed with the thought that actual worth is the real test 
of manhood, and whatever tends to bring this thought to 
the mind, in its relationship to the men of the past, is 
worthy of our consideration. 

Of many a man it may be truthfully said that " he be- 
ing dead, yet speaketh." It is not simply the canvas 
upon which we gaze, however radiant it may be with 
life, but rather the record of that life. It is an oj^en 
volume upon which we look, and on its pages we read, 
in letters of living light, the record of a worthy and well- 
spent life. It is a lesson presented for our study. This 
is a thoroughly busy world, and its inhabitants, as a 
class, do not have time for careful study. The bronze 
or marble statue of hero, poet, or painter ; the life- 
speaking canvas is, of itself, a condensed history, an 
epitome of many printed volumes, so plainly written that 
even he who runs may read. The face upon which we 
gaze, even though it has not life, yet speaks. The form 
which thus is represented, though it cannot move, yet 
walks forth amongst men, not in form and figure, but in 
thought and character. Many a man's life represents a 
struggle for some great principle, a protest against some 



28 

great wrong, and shall the struggle end with the life 1 
Shall the protest die with the man? No! Like as the 
face and form of the commander stimulates the soldier in 
the hour of strife, so shall this face and form, as it looks 
down upon us and our successors, call us and them to 
stronger work and nobler purpose. In Doric Hall below, 
we look upon the marble form of John A. Andrew, and 
from the sight we go forth with a new stimulus and an 
enlarged patriotism. We look at the chiselled statue of 
Webster, as it stands in all its massive strength, and we 
catch Ms voice as in clarion notes it breaks upon the ear, 
and we go forth to duty with a keener appreciation of 
manhood's worth. 

I have somewhere read the story of a painting that 
hung upon the walls of an old castle. It was the like- 
ness of one who, in his lifetime, was a warrior and a 
statesman. Those who came after him failed to possess 
the virtue and manhood of himself The nation was 
drifting to decay. One day, when the land seemed lost 
to all honor and noble deed, this hero stepped from the 
canvas, endowed anew with life, that he might once again 
inspire the people with his own valor and lead them 
anew to victory ! We cannot expect that out from this 
canvas shall come forth to new life this man who has 
already done his share in life ; but we may expect, as we 
look upon his face, a new inspiration to duty, and a 
louder call to life's work. 

Hon. Nathaniel A. Horton, Senator from Essex, said : — 

Mr. President, — The exercises of this hour are 
commemorative of a representative character of the 
Revolutionary period, and they are also the appropriate 



29 

accompaniment of an act by which a respected descend- 
ant of an honored ancestor pays an appropriate tribute 
to a memory worthy of being cherished, and at the same 
time places within the view of those who visit or from 
year to year gather within this Chamber, one more of 
those silent but expressive memorials which connect the 
past with the present, and which tend to the develop- 
ment of an ideal standard both of public and private life 
which is not otherwise than beneficial to society and 
promotive of the best interest of the State. 

The portraits which hang within this Legislative 
Chamber, representing the men who have occupied 
high positions of honor and trust within this Common- 
wealth, — John Winthrop, John Endicott, John Lever- 
ett, Simon Bradstreet, and the r-est, — have a significance 
not measured altogether by their official character nor 
by the simple record of their lives. They are types of the 
men who made and have given character to this Com- 
monwealth. The youth who enters and looks around 
this Chamber, casting his eyes musingly upon these por- 
traits sees in them an ideal standard of patriotism and 
rectitude in public life which of itself may be a potent 
influence in shaping his own character, his own destiny, 
and his own influence in the walks of men. 

The character which to-day takes its place among the 
memorials of this hall, is not widely known. In the his- 
tory of human affairs, even men of more than ordinary 
mark and distinction in their day drop out from public 
sight, and in a few generations are forgotten. The 
names in history which stand forth and come down 
through the centuries to be mentioned with the famili- 
arity of household words, are comparatively few. There 



30 

is no claim that this man was one of these. He was 
not a type of what we call the famous men in history, 
but rather a conspicuous illustration of the public ca- 
pacity to produce the men to fill stations of responsi- 
bility and trust in times of emergency ; and of that stern 
integrity, unselfish patriotism, and capacity to grasp the 
essential principles of a well organized society, which 
were so conspicuous a trait among those plain men 
whose judgment and moral support were as essential an 
element in the formation of this Republic, as the leader- 
ship of those master minds which have become renowned 
in the annals of American statesmanship. 

If I should feel inclined to welcome this memorial 
upon one ground more than another, it would be upon 
the presumption that it typifies these particular qualities 
in our early American life. It was in the prevalence 
of these qualities that our system of government was 
founded and placed upon a firm and broad basis of 
enduring principles. Upon the extent to which these 
qualities are preserved will depend the future welfare of 
our institutions. 

I am not unwilling, Mr. President, to be classed among 
those men of conservative tendencies who hold in ven- 
eration the marvellous wisdom, foresight, and mental 
grasp which laid down and incorporated into law the 
rules and safeguards upon which a popular government 
must rely for its successful administration. And I should 
always be slow to counsel changes in our methods of 
administering justice, or in the fundamental law of our 
Commonwealth, if they seemed to be of a nature likely 
to prove eventually destructive of those wise safeguards 
which the founders of our system so carefully and 



31 

thoughtfully considered, and the wisdom of which has 
been proved by the experience of a century. 

This man whom we here commemorate, I infer from 
a somewhat hasty examination of his career, was one 
who had his share of the faults common to men. A 
biographer has said he was " hasty in temper." It is 
easy to imagine, both from this record, and from certain 
acts of determination recorded in his official life, that he 
possessed qualities that would not, of themselves, have 
been likely to secure for him that advancement to rep- 
resentative positions which marked his life. His eleva- 
tion to one public trust after another was evidently due 
largely to an honesty of purpose, earnestness of convic- 
tion, and determination to standby every principle which 
he deemed vital to the welfare and preservation of a 
popular government ; and, viewing his selection for pub- 
lic trusts in this light, it was not more honorable to his 
character than to the discriminating judgment of the 
constituencies who selected him to represent their inter- 
ests. His life, viewed in this aspect, is valuable as a trib- 
ute to American character, and as an evidence of the 
faith which may safely be reposed in the controlling 
mass of intelligent men. The majority of people do not 
dislike a marked individuality of character in any man. 
They will elevate men of earnest and sincere convictions, 
and, as a rule, will rely upon the judgment of such in 
the performance of public trusts. The senator or the 
representative who stands by an honest and intelligent 
conviction, even though it seems to be at variance with 
an apparent popular sentiment of a passing hour, 
will, as a rule, better and more acceptably represent the 
enduring sentiment of the people, than the one whose 



32 

chief solicitude is to arrive at an estimate of what will 
best please a majority of his constituents in the transi- 
tory judgment of a passing hour. 

The man who best subserves the highest purpose in 
life is he whose acts are inspired by a sense of personal 
responsibility of which he is not conscious, just as the 
men who seem to have fulfilled the greatest mission in 
life are those who appear to have been the least con- 
scious that they had a mission. As a rule, in the con- 
duct and consideration of public affairs, the man who is 
inspired by high principles and sincere convictions, and 
who is animated by an honest purpose to engraft them 
upon a community, in his daily walk as a citizen and 
in the exercise of his influence at the ballot-box, is 
the man whose inspiration is that of an instinctive and 
unstudied sense of personal responsibility for the influ- 
ence he may exert. To such men, life is regarded as 
a trust, and none the less so regarded because they 
do not stop to reason out the problem of living, nor 
carefully calculate their destiny in the great future that 
is beyond. 

Mr. President, it is of no consequence to the world at 
large, nor even to those who are gathered here, but to 
me the thought is full of interesting suggestiveness, that 
this man passed out of life the day following that on 
which I came into life. He and I dwelt one day together 
in the land of the living. And thus the world goes on. 
One man goes out and another comes in. The change is 
constant, and the law never fails. A man drops out, and, 
even where he has filled positions of distinction, he is 
soon forgotten, and, if his name comes accidentally to 
the surface, men mouse among musty records to find 



33 

trace of who and what he was. It is a wonderful 
thought that at intervals of comparatively few years this 
entire earth is repeopled. " One generation passeth 
away, and another generation cometh." And yet we 
come into life singly, and at intervals apart, and we 
drop out of life in the same way. The young jostle 
along for a period with the old, and the old with the 
young. Each exerts its influence upon the other, and 
no man has a right to say or to think that his influence 
counts for nothing in the world's economy. It is a mat- 
ter of little consequence in human affairs whether we are 
honored with the distinctions which men bestow. ' It is 
of great consequence that we realize the responsibility 
of the trust which is imposed in whatever station and 
calling in life we occupy. 

It is largely to this unstudied sense of responsibility, in 
the conduct of public affairs more particularly, that we 
are indebted for the wise provisions of government which 
we enjoy to-day. To me this portrait, which is here- 
after to grace these walls, will have its chief and most 
valuable signiflcance, not in the fact that it recalls a 
man who was an aide to Washington, valuable and 
patriotic as that memory may be ; nor in the fact that he 
occupied the chair of the President of the Senate, inter- 
esting* as that no doubt is to us all ; but in the fact that 
he was a type of that manhood which is ever alive to a 
sense of its public duties, and of that individuality of 
character which has proved so valuable a trait in the 
stock from which we sprung, and which has made this 
State and this country all that they now are. 



34 



Hon. George A. Bruce, Senator from Middlesex, spoke as 
follows : — 

Mr. President, — I join most heartily in what has 
already been said, expressive of the thanks which are 
due from the Senate and the Commonwealth to the gen- 
erous donor of this splendid canvas. It is an acquisition 
of which we may well be proud, judged not only as a 
work of art, but as a lifelike presentment of the features 
of one of Massachusetts' illustrious public characters. In- 
deed, I think we might go further and say that individ- 
ually at least our thanks are due for the opportunity of 
listening to the exercises thus far completed of this most 
pleasant occasion. There has been withdrawn from 
before us, as it were, the veil which separates us from 
the past. We have been permitted to look again upon 
the features of a buried generation, and to hear por- 
trayed the strong and manly traits of character which 
well entitles the portrait of David Cobb to a place side 
by side with those of the other Massachusetts men that 
now grace and adorn these walls. 

I remember to have heard it said of Thoreau, the 
poet naturalist, that, if by some charm he could have 
been put to sleep for a century and then could w^ake in 
any season of the year, he could without the aid of hu- 
man agency tell the very day of the month, so familiar 
to his eye were all the secrets of nature about him, — 
the mysteries, to most of us, of earth and air, of plant, 
of tree, of cloud and sky. 

It seems to me that, without the aid of name or date, 
from the noble face that looks out to us from yonder 



35 



canvas, from the portraiture of character so finely and 
skilfully drawn by the accomplished presiding officer of 
this body, and by the cultured Senator from Bristol, we 
should each of us have been led to suspect that we were 
looking upon the features of one who belonged to what 
has been aptly termed the heroic age in Massachusetts ; 
there was in and of him so much of that tough mental 
fibre, so much of that resolute and unconquerable will, 
so much of those other high mental and moral qualities 
which every one familiar with history recognizes as 
belonging to the men who struck the chains of servi- 
tude from this people and clothed them with freedom 
regulated by law. 

The man who uttered the noble sentiment at Taunton 
Court House, twice repeated this afternoon, might well 
have given expression to the sentiment which is invol- 
untarily suggested at the mention of the name of Henry, 
or that other of equal renown which is inseparably con- 
nected with the name of the elder Adams. 

It was said of Mirabeau that a word from him marked 
an epoch in the French Revolution ; of James Otis, that 
by his electric eloquence he brought a continent to its 
feet; of John Adams, that he lifted the American Colo- 
nies up to independence. What wonderful powers of 
condensed expression we admire in such men. Life 
with them seemed too short and events too pressing to 
allow the waste of moments even in useless speech. A 
sentence in passionate and burning words, voicing the 
aspirations and ardent hopes of a people, has more than 
once in history cut the Gordian knot and changed the 
destiny of nations. 



5 



36 

But after all it is not so much the words, as Emerson 
puts it, as the man behind the words. It was not so 
much the short and pithy sentence of General Cobb at 
Taunton Green as the man behind it that awed and 
quelled the crowd. 

How marked are the times in which he lived and 
acted, and how contrasted with those in which he now 
comes in miniature to again take up his abode among us. 
We are now living as it were in a great civic calm, — 
thanks to him and such as he, — the bounds of freedom 
widely and firmly set, personal liberty secure and safe 
under a wise and beneficent system of laws. 

As one passes the Berkshire Hills and travels west- 
ward in the summer time day after day through level 
fields of waving grain and corn, ten times larger than 
the whole acreage of Massachusetts, he is apt to feel 
that here at home we are somewhat isolated and circum- 
scribed within altogether too narrow limits. But we 
feel and know that the greatness of States cannot be 
measured by material things. Here as elsewhere the 
world of thought and action that knows no bounds is 
open to us, and all who wish may enter it. Massachu- 
setts has entered it, and here it is that by her children 
she has won her great and imperishable renown. Life 
with us is broader and richer for their achievements. 
We live not alone in the present, but that which has 
gone before and that which we devoutly hope will come 
hereafter enter into and form in part the enjoyments of 
the passing hour. 

No State has been more fortunate than Massachusetts 
in the character of her public men in each epoch of her 



37 

history ; and no State cherishes their names with more 
of pride and satisfaction. It was while thinking of these 
and of the generations of noble men and women too, 
who have lived and passed away with them, that Whit- 
tier gave expression to the sentiment with which we 
should all here be in sympathy and accord : — 

" Then ask not why to these rough hills 
I cling, as clings the tufted moss, 
To bear the winter's lingering chills, 
The mocking spring's perpetual loss ; 
I dream of lands where summer smiles, 
Where soft winds blow from spicy isles ; 
But scarce would Ceylon's breath of flowers be sweet, 
Could I not feel thy soil. New England, at my feet." 

Hon. Peleg McFarlin, Senator from Plymouth, said: — 

Though I may not hope to command the stately utter- 
ance best suited to this hour, still I cannot permit the 
occasion to pass without expressing something of the 
sense of obligation I feel, in common with my associates, 
towards the donor of this most worthy and appropriate 
gift. It is certainly most appropriate that one whose 
name is indissolubly associated with the early struggles 
of the Republic, and who, in later days, won distinction 
in these halls as a patriot and a statesman, should take 
his place here, in full and equal companionship with 
these other worthies whose faces adorn this Senate Cham- 
ber through the subtle reproduction of art. It is strik- 
ingly appropriate that a lineal descendant of him whose 
virtues we this day commemorate, who has himself done 
the State some service, who has wisely presided over the 
destinies of this New England metropolis, who, by his 



38 

conspicuous talents, has signally illustrated the principle 
of hereditary transmission, should from his own munifi- 
cence present this portrait to his mother State. From a 
full heart I thank him for the costly offering he this day 
submits to our keeping. And, Mr. President, I cannot 
say too much in praise of this painting. As I look on 
that heroic face, which wears its dignity so well, it seems 
to kindle with the pulse of life, and with the illumination 
of thought. The lips seem to stir again with the old-time 
eloquence, inspiring the heart with reverence for the 
past, and with exultant hope for the future. Let Massa- 
chusetts guard well the memory of this Revolutionary 
sire. Let the sculptor vie with the painter in perpetu- 
ating his mortal charms, till the lines of Whittier, 
written in eulogy of Sumner, shall become equally 
applicable to General Cobb : — 

" The marble image of her son 
Her loving hands shall yearly crown ; 
And, from her pictured pantheon, 
His grand, majestic face look down." 



The resolution was unanimously adopted by a rising vote. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




01 1 698 238 9 



